Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Frontier Zone (6)
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When Galen first arrived in the Frontier Zone, the weather had been full midsummer. But now, two months later, it had fully transitioned into autumn.
In the cultivated fields where ripe grains formed waves of gold, the harvest had begun a few days prior. Farmers swung their sickles busily, while mercenaries stood guard with even greater vigilance.
Fiend raids were always a threat, but harvest season was especially crucial. If disaster struck now, a full year's labor would bubble away to nothing.
Of course, none of that concerned Galen, who belonged to neither group. He had returned to the first village for a break.
That said, "taking a break" simply meant he wasn't heading out on fiend subjugation missions—it didn't mean he was slacking off entirely.
"Are you ready?"
"Just a sec!"
The church's backyard. A small clearing, cluttered only with stacks of firewood and miscellaneous junk, had somehow become a makeshift training ground.
It wasn't exactly spacious, but it wasn't so cramped that there wasn't room to swing a weapon. Since only two people used it, as long as they didn't get too rowdy, it served well enough.
Galen and Lilia stood at opposite edges of the clearing. Lilia gauged the distance to the back wall, shook the mace in her hand, and shouted.
"Okay!"
"Here I go, then."
Galen raised his left hand, extending just his index finger to aim at Lilia. Mana released from his wrist enveloped his entire hand, forming a glove-like shape.
Pfbt!
A water orb about the size of an apricot shot out. Despite the cute sound, its speed was nearly invisible.
Thwack!
Lilia, enhanced by the Miracle of Fortification, saw it clearly. She swiftly swung her mace. The water shattered on impact with the metal lump.
Lilia nodded as she gauged the impact force transmitted through her hand. Galen asked.
"Is that about right?"
"Hmm, for a regular person, a direct hit might crack a bone? It's plenty threatening, so no need to dial it up further!"
"What about for Bronze-rank?"
"It'd hurt the same if it lands, but probably depends on their prep. If they're fully braced, it'd still just be a threat."
"Got it. Let's add one more finger, then."
"Yes!"
Galen extended his middle finger. With two fingers now pointing, the amount of water used doubled accordingly.
Poof!
Lilia intercepted the fist-sized orb with her mace and gave her verdict.
"A bit light!"
"Can't crank the speed any higher. How about this?"
"Whoa?! Don't shoot while talking!"
"You handled it fine. Better now?"
"Hmm, pass!"
Galen gradually added fingers, adjusting the water volume based on Lilia's feedback to gauge the power levels.
One finger: a taste. Two: for suppression. Three: lethal on impact. Four: a real threat even to Silver-rank.
"With my current skill, we can classify them like this. Treat five as full power."
"Kinda curious how strong five would be, though..."
"You definitely shouldn't use it here, at least. Blocking head-on would be bad, and dodging even worse."
"Ah."
"Stick to practice for now. Starting with three fingers."
"Great!"
The water blobs now targeted Lilia in earnest. Earlier had been calibration shots, taken easy, but no need to hold back anymore.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Aiming randomly at her shoulders, chest, stomach, thighs, shins—everywhere but her head—the blobs flew in succession.
Splack! Splack! Splack! Splack!
Lilia deftly swung her mace. The combo of mace and agility felt a tad off, but she was parrying the relentless barrage without issue.
When the backyard started turning into a muddy mess like after a downpour, they'd pause to recover the water, wait for the ground to dry, then repeat.
Difficulty ramped from one finger to four. Weaker shots meant more of them, so Lilia couldn't relax.
Galen, just flicking fingers in place with no fear of counterattack, had it easy.
'Progress is climbing steadily today, too.'
With the status window open in the corner of his vision, Galen stole glances and smiled faintly.
Spirit Creation Lv.40
Progress to next level: 40%
This training was a joint effort, agreed upon by Galen and Lilia.
For Lilia, who had little chance to face real mages, it was a welcome drill to build countermeasures—even if limited to water magic.
It benefited Galen too. Aside from recovering water, he wasn't using Water Flow Manipulation at all. He relied solely on the spirit.
'Sorry for neglecting you, master.'
Galen gently stroked the spirit coating his left hand with his right. It rippled lightly in response.
Back when he'd just swiped Spirit Creation from Redna and used it in battle, Galen had the spirit spray water, then manipulated its speed and direction with Water Flow Manipulation.
That made sense at low levels, but now with sufficient level-up, the spirit could blast water much more forcefully on its own.
He wasn't sure exactly when it had learned to fire enlarged droplets in spherical form instead of mere streams.
Since he'd treated it mostly as a water tank rather than an attacker, he'd only recently noticed the new capability.
'If I'd known sooner, I'd have used it ages ago.'
The water blob shots Galen favored were something the spirit could handle fine. Size and speed fell short of his direct control, but plenty for trash mobs.
Now that he knew, he doted on it consistently. Training with Lilia especially boosted experience gain.
...Though the gap with Water Flow Manipulation at Lv.55 had widened again, he'd make it up from here.
As mana consumption for Spirit Creation passed the halfway mark, Galen spoke up.
"Call it here?"
"Yup!"
Lilia replied, bursting the final blob with gusto.
She trotted over to Galen, who was leisurely recovering water, her eyes sparkling.
"Brother Galen, Brother Galen! I thought of a great name for the technique today!"
"You don't have to bother coming up with one."
"Brother Galen's naming sense is terrible!"
"Doesn't matter since I'm not saying it out loud anyway."
"Still! You'd probably go with something lame like 'One Finger' or 'Two Fingers' for power levels, right?"
"...No."
"You hesitated!"
"I didn't. Anyway, what's your idea?"
"Water Flow Bullet!"
"...Pardon?"
"'Cause it's gathering flowing water and firing it!"
"Uh, um..."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'll consider it."
The ring wasn't bad, but since the spirit fired it, not him, something like Spirit Water Bullet would avoid confusion, Galen mused.
He wasn't doing this for flair.
According to Lilia's intel, mage families segmented their spells with names, chanting them during training or even battle.
Over the past two months, Galen had analyzed why.
'They're standardizing their magic on purpose.'
This world's magic couldn't be systematic by nature. Borrowing Earth's terms, it was closer to superpowers.
Humans don't calculate every body movement. They just intend to move, and it happens.
Mages were similar. Awaken a specific mana, and the corresponding magic comes naturally—no study required.
But like systematizing sports through science boosts efficiency, mage families did the same.
Instead of gut-feel casting, they researched optimal methods for max effect and tailored accordingly.
'Like developing recipes in cooking. Follow it, and you always get peak flavor.'
It might be off-base, but Galen was mostly convinced.
He was seeing effects from naming his own techniques.
Take today's training: Before, he'd just order the spirit to spray an appropriate amount at appropriate speed.
Now, he predefined exact water volume per scenario, size and speed for desired damage, issuing shortcut commands like Spirit Water Bullet One, Two, Three, Four.
'The more familiar, the less brain load. Like it processes unconsciously...'
For mages handling everything mentally, reduced cognitive strain was huge.
Max water capacity per level hadn't increased, but within limits, he wielded magic more fluidly than before.
'...Still can't voice the names aloud, though. That's pure showmanship anyway—pointless.'
Galen shook his head lightly, snapping from his thoughts.
Lilia, who had been staring at him intently, asked.
"Still pondering? Just go with Water Flow Bullet."
"Nah, wasn't pondering."
"You had such a serious face!"
"Just... mulling over the training's effects briefly."
"Hmm, now that you mention it, I've been nagging a lot lately? But with nothing else to do right now..."
The topic shifted naturally. Galen inwardly cheered escaping the Water Flow Bullet nightmare and chimed in.
"Can't be helped. Honestly, we've been too diligent these past months."
"True. We weren't working enough before, but who knew too much success would be a problem too!"
The reason Lilia—who treated fiend subjugation as her life's mission—was holed up in the church training with Galen was simple.
Two months of hyper-productivity had exhausted their workload.
Fiends still infested everywhere, but Lilia targeted only "strong" ones at minimum Silver-rank, and those weren't common. You couldn't just summon them at will.
They'd scoured abandoned village traces and eyewitness reports first, but their stellar results had wiped strong fiends from the Frontier Zone vicinity.
"To hunt strong fiends now, we'd have to head deep into the mountains or basins proper..."
"Way more dangerous than now."
"Yeah. Sister Jenny wouldn't allow—"
"Allow what?"
"Eek!"
Lilia flinched at the sudden voice. Jenny was just stepping into the backyard.
"Sounded like my name."
"N-no, nothing."
"Hmmm."
Jenny eyed the evasive Lilia suspiciously before shrugging.
"Whatever, I'll ask later. Not urgent right now."
"Something up?"
"Got a regular dispatch from the diocese earlier. Orders to return to Abaca."
"Huh? What about current requests?"
"Dunno. Probably need to ask about that too."
Jenny turned to Galen.
"Invitation for Brother Galen as well."